The sky was hammering down Mumbai and it was hastily getting submerged in the stormy rains. Suddenly there was a knock on the car’s window & a silhouette of a young kid who was trying to make a living, selling books on the streets.

I enquired, “Kya tum kitaab pad sakhte ho” meaning, “Can You read?” He unexpectedly handed me a piece of paper treasured carefully in his shorts pocket in a plastic sheet. It had a list of school books. I merely handed him some money and the car started to move again. Within seconds the kid’s face had moved out in the chaotic and gusty rains.

I thanked my stars for the gift to be able to read.

In today’s fast paced world, reading has given me the much-needed peace from routine. Reading can take you from depths of reality and still keep bringing you back to a totally sane world of vivid imagination.

Fiction novels have scores of times, taken me away from mundane chores and given a totally new perspective to life.

I would not say reading fiction is my escape route from reality. Rather, for me it has at many levels, inspired to think out of the box, free my mind effortlessly and start afresh.

For me, reading fiction is like creating a dream while I am awake.

It allows me to consciously be a part of someone’s perceived reality for that moment while they were creating it. It gives you the flexibility to be a part of a creatively growing imaginative society.

So if you ask me, what reading fiction means to me, well, simply put, it’s a sane way of life.

It is perfectly right when you say that you can be a part of someone’s perceived reality. Especially in the fantasy genre like LOTR or The Hunger Games or even Harry potter. Movies will never have the same effect as the human imagination.

well reading fiction for me is a combination of both , escape from reality as well as compelling me to think out of the box when and if parallel situations arise in my life.
I love enjoying the highs and lows of the book and feel happy in the happy (mostly) ending . I always feel a different world resides within the two covers of the book which is ours to explore , exploit and perceive the way we want .
Awesome article
Karishma